Eddie Vedder cheers as West Memphis 3 walk free

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder was sitting front and center when the so-called West Memphis 3 were released from prison Friday.

The Seattle music icon has been a longtime supporter of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, the three men convicted in 1994 of killing three 8-year-old Cub Scouts in Arkansas and dumping their mutilated bodies in a creek.

The men changed their not guilty pleas to Alford pleas — modified guilty pleas that maintain innocence in the face of damning evidence. The three were credited with time served and released after being placed on 10 years’ probation.

Vedder has advocated for the men tirelessly in recent years, holding a benefit concert with actor Johnny Depp and regularly visiting Echols on death row.

“Probably one of the reasons I’m not as good a friend with the friends I now have is because I spend so much time on this case and being Damien’s friend,” Vedder told Larry King last year. “After I’ve gone to visit Damien, there are days and stretches. And, you know, that experience resonates and stays within you. And I think it’s one of the reasons I’ve really tried to do everything I could for the case… It’s stuck with me. I think about it a lot.”

Vedder was in court Friday when an Arkansas judge accepted the modified please.

Echols’ wife, Lorri, sat in the front row of a crowded courtroom, next to Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who became a key supporter of the men after watching a pair of HBO documentaries about the case. Vedder put his arm around her during the proceedings.

Vedder reportedly cheered when the men walked free and later took part in a press conference.

Other artists besides Vedder and Depp also took up the cause of the West Memphis 3, including singer Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks.